Maryland Trucking Accident Lawyer Blog

Maryland Farmer Injured after Tractor Hit by Big Rig 18-Wheeler Along Rte 1

June 4, 2012 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

While it’s probably true that most drivers who live in cities — such as Gaithersburg, Annapolis and the District of Columbia — feel that driving in the country is mostly relaxing and free from the stress and dangers associated with urban traffic, there are still significant risks for car, truck and motorcycle riders out in the more rural areas. For example, tractors and other farm vehicles that use the roadways here in Maryland and across the United States are usually slower and more ponderous than any passenger car or commercial truck.

The very nature of a farm tractor or hay wagon makes it a relatively slow vehicle compared to other passenger cars, SUV and even large over-the-road commercial trucks. These are such slow vehicles that owners are required to display a caution triangle on the rear of the vehicle to warn other drivers of the potential hazard. On country roads were speeds can range from 35, 45 and even 55mph, a farm implement moving from one part of a farm to another may only be able to hit 15mph or so. As Maryland personal injury lawyers, we know that one of the more significant causes of traffic accidents is speed disparity.

When a car, truck or motorcycle traveling at 50mph or more encounters a tractor along a country road, the speed differential can be as much as 20 or 30mph, sometimes more depending on the type of load being pulled by the tractor, as well as other factors. Cresting a hill to find a slow-moving farm implement, a driver may have only a couple seconds to either slow down or attempt to pass the slower moving vehicle. In such situations, especially is an oncoming vehicle is closing as well, a roadway collision could be imminent.

Maryland Commercial Trucking Accidents: Recognizing the “False Security” of a “Large” Passenger Car

May 31, 2012 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Anybody who has lost a parent or child, friend or loved one in a fatal car crash has no doubt looked back many times on what could have been, rather than what is now likely an emotionally painful void in one’s life. Being a survivor is not an enviable position for many people who must carry on in the absence of a significant person in his or her life. As Maryland personal injury lawyers, I and my colleagues understand the finality of a fatal traffic accident; and the senselessness of the whole incident.

As car, truck and motorcycle accident attorneys who represent victims of severe and fatal traffic collisions, we understand all too well the automobile, motorcycle and trucking-related roadway collisions, I and my legal staff have first-hand experience with people whose pain may take years to go away, if ever.

Here in the Baltimore area, as with parts of The District, Cumberland, Annapolis and Bowie, MD, hardly a week goes by that there isn’t a news report of a car crash involving a cyclist or pedestrian. These types of accidents are almost always “one-sided,” in that the person on foot or on his or her bike has little protection against a 3,000-pound car or even larger commercial delivery truck or 18-wheeler. In these instances, closed-head trauma, spinal cord injuries and broken bones can all be quite common.

Four Separate Maryland Semi tractor-trailer Accidents Result in Deaths of 4 Passenger Car Drivers

May 23, 2012 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

As commercial trucking accident attorneys, we make no bones about the number of innocent people killed each year as a result of negligent driving on the part of truckers operating 18-wheeler rigs and other heavy commercial vehicles. The very nature of these huge motor vehicles — such as fuel tankers makes these vehicle more than a match for the average passenger car, SUV or family sedan.

As such, the drivers of these vehicles are trained and licensed by the government to operate their machines in a responsible and safe manner. And while most truckers do treat their jobs as positions of great responsibility, there are others who tend to give the entire industry a bad name. The same can also be said about trucking line owners, a small percentage of whom seem to thumb their noses at the rules and regulations that have been established to protect the road-going public from harm.

Whether through unwritten policy, direct acts of negligence or outright dangerous vehicle operation, numerous big rig drivers and trucking companies throughout the U.S. are fined or imprisoned each year as a result of poor business practices or injury-related traffic accidents caused by trucker in their employ.

One Person Dead After Tractor-trailer Crashes into School Bus North of Maryland State Line

May 16, 2012 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

We doubt that many parents place much stock in hoping that their children have a safe ride to and from school. Preferably, most parents would likely want to be assured by a consistent safety record of the bus drivers that work in their school district. Unfortunately, while a school system can more or less control the quality of the drivers they hire, other external factors affecting the safety of school kids riding in those buses can be much more random and have a sometimes dangerous effect on the number and frequency of traffic accidents involving those school buses.

It’s certainly a tragedy when any innocent child is hurt or killed in a mostly preventable accident. When that accident involves a loaded school bus, more than one child can be affected. As Maryland personal injury attorneys, our concern is for the victims and their families, especially in cases where negligence likely played a part in the confluence of such a roadway collision.

From time to time, we read of situations that place our most precious of resource — our children — in harm’s way. Whether an incident takes place here in the Baltimore area, over in Columbia, or even in Washington, D.C., a victim of a car, truck or motorcycle crash can face a long road back to full health. As injury lawyers, our job is to help victims and their families recover costs associated with a bad auto accident. Of course, recouping monetary costs may not help heal the emotional and psychological scars, but it can go a long way to easing the burden on a family whose world has been turned upside down by a traffic wreck.

Pedestrian Severely Injured in Cecil County, MD, Tractor-trailer Accident on U.S. 340 near Charlestown

May 9, 2012 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Head, neck and spinal cord injuries are all part and parcel of a roadway collision between a pedestrian and a car or truck. This is not to say that people injured on a motorcycle (or while riding a bike) are any more or less apt to be similarly hurt in a traffic accident, but those individuals on foot have no other protection other than their own bodies.

As Maryland personal injury attorneys, I and my colleagues know, first-hand, the physical pain and emotional suffering felt by those who have been hurt as a result of a negligent act by another motorist. For pedestrians hit by a motor vehicle, a trip to the hospital is more than likely. The length of their stay is dependent on the type and extent of those injuries.

Closed-head injury is one of the more serious kinds of accident-related bodily trauma that can occur when a person is struck by a truck or car. During the collision or in the aftermath as the victim falls to the ground, striking one’s head on part of a metal vehicle or onto hard pavement can impart serious force to the brain. In either case, the human skull can only provide so much protection to the brain as the result of an impact from a car crash.

Commercial Trucking Accident News: Federal Express Truck Collides with School Bus in Calvert County, MD

April 30, 2012 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

As consumers, we all rely on professionals to be the best they can be and to do their job with the utmost quality and consideration. When it comes to professional drivers, such as those who operate limousines, taxi cabs, city buses and commercial delivery trucks, we expect those individuals to be vigilant and take extreme care when driving their vehicles. Unfortunately, not all commercial truck drivers are perfect; and traffic accidents can and do happen on a regular basis.

As Baltimore auto injury lawyers and Maryland personal injury attorneys, I and my legal staff are always aware of the dangers that average people face every day of their lives. The problem is, not all people take care to avoid situations where the potential for bodily injury is higher than average. Driving in dense city traffic or on a high-speed interstate with semi tractor-trailers all around are just a couple of instances where a passenger car driver could find herself getting involved in a serious traffic collision.

It’s not surprising to most people that being caught up in a roadway wreck with an 18-wheeler can result in life-threatening injuries. But believe us when we say that even smaller commercial vehicles, such as box trucks, dump trucks, and even garbage trucks can turn the average passenger sedan into a mass of crushed sheetmetal given the right circumstances.

Baltimore Personal Injury News: Aberdeen, Maryland, Driver Killed in Crash with Tractor-trailer Rig

April 23, 2012 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

It’s a fair bet that anyone who drives here in Maryland travels at one time or another on an undivided highway or high-speed surface street. As human beings most of us don’t dwell too much on the potential carnage that could result from a head-on car collision at almost any speed, much less highway speeds. Sometimes it takes a certain lack of imagination to venture out onto roads with no barriers separating opposing traffic lanes.

Of course, it goes without saying that accidents can and do happen on a rather regular basis in rural areas as well as urban locales such as Gaithersburg, Bowie, the District and Rockville. As a Maryland personal injury law firm, I and my legal team represent victims of automobile, motorcycle and commercial trucking accidents. In cases where a family has lost a loved one to a traffic accident caused by the negligent act of another motorist, we can help pursue a wrongful death claim against the responsible parties.

Nothing is permanent in this life, but the loss of a life through a senseless or preventable act is one of the more tragic ways to lose a parent, child, friend or colleague. While accidents happen all of the time around this country, car and motorcycle wrecks can result in serious injuries, permanent disability or even death. Whether a family has had a loved one die on a Maryland highway, or be injured with weeks or months of medical treatment and rehabilitation ahead of them, it is always a wise choice to contact a qualified injury attorney before talking with the other driver’s insurance company.

Commercial Vehicle Accident Leaves University of Baltimore Student Seriously Injured following City Bus Crash

April 15, 2012 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

As a personal injury attorney here in Maryland, I know how much the odds are stacked against pedestrians and bicyclists in cases of traffic-related accidents. Pitting oneself, as a virtually unprotected human being, against a two ton passenger car — not to mention being hit by a large commercial vehicle, such as a large box truck, semi tractor-trailer or even a metropolitan transit bus — is a situation few would want to experience.

Pedestrian roadway accidents involving cars and trucks can result in some pretty serious bodily injuries on the part of the hapless person on foot or riding a bike. Simply being knocked over by a motor vehicle that passes too close can cause an individual to fall to the tarmac, potentially causing broken bones or even a concussion; closed-head injuries are not uncommon in such collisions between people and vehicular traffic.

As Baltimore car, truck and motorcycle accident lawyers, I and my legal staff have met numerous individuals hurt or severely injure in a random car or trucking-related wreck. In pedestrian-related collisions, the people traveling on foot are rarely the winners; many people do, in fact, suffer extensive injuries that may require days or weeks in a hospital bed. Expensive medical treatment is sometimes followed by a fair amount of physical therapy in order to get the victim back to some semblance of normalcy once back at home.

Baltimore Trucking Accident News: Maryland Trucker Charged with Drunk Driving after Wedging Semi Under Overpass

April 8, 2012 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

For those out there who believe that every commercial trucker is the paramount of professionalism, we are here to say, albeit sadly, that this is not always the case. Just as with the motoring public in general, there are good apples and bad. Fortunately for most of us, the bad apples are few and far between, but this does not mean that there is not cause for concern vis-à-vis traffic accidents caused by negligence; this portion of the driving public is still over represented, at least from our standpoint as Maryland personal injury lawyers.

The point we are trying to make here is that while not every car, truck or motorcycle operator is a perfect driver, there are some very bad actors in our midst every day or every month. We, as motorists, may not realize we are sharing the road with potentially negligent individuals, which is a blessing in some regards. The downside, of course, is that one never knows when tragic traffic accident may strike as a result of one of these bad apples.

If you think that commercial truck drivers are less than likely to be poor or negligent drivers, you could be right. While most truckers obey traffic laws and Federal regulations and guidelines for operating these 80,000-pound rigs, there is a percent of truckers who flout the law either surreptitiously or even openly in some instances. Of course, they face stiff penalties, not the least of which is forfeiture of their commercial driver’s license (CDL), which can bring their truck driving career to a halt very quickly.

Maryland Auto Accident News: Truck Driver Killed in Auto Hauler Accident in Baltimore County

March 31, 2012 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

As motorists we are all tested and licensed by the state of Maryland before we can legally operate a motor vehicle on public roads. This is reasonable and as a matter of tradition and the law, completely acceptable considering the dangers that an unqualified driver could pose on the streets of Rockville, Howie, Columbia and Washington, D.C. By extension, it is no surprise that drivers of commercial motor vehicles have an ever stricter set of hurdles to clear before being granted their commercial driver’s license (CDL).

Anyone who disagrees with the added regulatory requirements imposed on operators of 18-wheelers, semi tractor-trailers, commercial box trucks, and even city bus drivers, should consider the heady responsibility of driving a 30-plus-ton, multi-wheeled behemoth on a public road. At nearly 20 times the mass of an average passenger car, a long-haul semi rig can easily become an almost unstoppable and indiscriminate killing machine if driven recklessly on an expressway or city street.

As Maryland trucking accident lawyers and personal injury attorneys, I and my colleagues are keenly aware of the potential for bodily harm or death from one of these vehicles when its driver is caught unaware or even actively negligent in his or her operation of that 18-wheeler. And this goes for being in or working around even a stationary truck.